D, High D and Low D ?

[yankees1]

What is the difference between these three whistles ?

[Peter Duggan]

Plain 'D' could refer to either of the others, although more usually High D. High D and Low D both have a bell note (lowest pitch, all holes covered) of D, but Low D sounds as written (in flute range) with a bell note of D4 (c.294 Hz), and High D an octave higher (in piccolo or soprano recorder range) with a bell note of D5 (c.588 Hz). So Low D is also longer and fatter than High D, with a bigger finger stretch and air requirement.

[pancelticpiper]

What Peter said.

When people speak of "a whistle" or "a D whistle" it's usually inferred that they're talking about the traditional smaller whistle. Until Low Whistles were invented (in the 1970s) there was no other size of D whistle.

But Low Whistles came along and everybody suddenly had two sizes of D whistle to keep track of.

It didn't end there! Because a couple keys, G for example, were now made in THREE different sizes. What to do?

Since many people had been calling the middle size the "Low G" the biggest size was dubbed the "Bass G".

But others called the biggest size the "Low G" and the term "Mezzo G" was coined for the middle size.

Since the term "Low" is thus unclear, I tend to use "Bass" for the biggest size and "Mezzo" for the middle size, at least for keys that are made in three different octaves.